Canada’s Olympians eliminated at beach volleyball World Cup trials

TORONTO – Canada's Olympic men's beach volleyball team of Josh Binstock of Toronto and Martin Reader of Comox, B.C., playing with different partners, were both eliminated on Friday at the World Cup Canadian team trials.

The competition is being held at the indoorBeach High Performance Facilityat Downsview Park.

In the first semifinal, Binstock and Maverick Hatch of Comox, B.C., lost to Christian Redmann and Matt Zbyszewski of Toronto 21-18, 19-21, 15-11. The winning pair had only played once together before in competition and came into Friday’s match with five practices under their belts.

‘’We felt we did well,’’ said Redmann. ‘’We knew it was going to be a choppy match and we were going to have to scrap it out. Matt is a very easy partner to adapt to and tonight we definitely would not have won this match without his quality serving.’

In the second semifinal, Chaim Schalk of Red Deer, Alta., and Ben Saxton of Calgary beat Reader and Sam Schachter of Toronto, a world junior champion, 21-16, 21-14.

“We were confident going into the match,” said Schalk, who won a NORCECA (North, Central America and Caribbean) event this past September with Saxton. “We have really good chemistry and a great ability to rebound after a missed play.

Saturday’s final is at 6:30 p.m., at the indoorBeach High Performance Facilityat Downsview Park in Toronto.

On the women’s side, Liz Maloney and Heather Bansley of Toronto have already locked up the World Cup spot. They were Canada’s top-ranked international team all season.

The FIVB World Cup final will be held January 9-13 in Brazil and will offer more than $300,000 in cash prizes.